Author Archives: Felician Mission: Haiti

The children and young people will be preparing for the sacraments of Holy Communion and Confirmation. Please keep them in your prayers.

Thank you to JDM Associates for the coolest t-shirts in Jacmel!

Meet Gaelle, one of our teens who works one-on-one with our kids. Here she is teaching French.

At the request of our Bishop, the Mother Angela Clinic now goes to LaSaline. This area is not far from our home. It is a very poor area near the sea. Many of our children come from that area. The site used to be a clinic owned by a group from Canada, but they could not continue to support it. This is where the spirit of Mother Angela is able to respond and serve where needed. It is because of you and your generous support that we can extend our healing mission.

You may remember last year we had some guests with us from Boston, MA. They are with the Father Jean Parisol Foundation and were building a vocational school in his memory. This week, two members from that organization stayed with us as they dedicated the new school. It is known as St Clare School and has classes for pre-school and grades 1-6. Soon, in the evenings, they will start the vocational school for older teens. The Foundation is a dedicated group of people with a passion for empowering Haitians to help themselves. We met the group six years ago when they first started planning, so it is a joy to see how the seed of hope has grown.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:16-17

One of our greatest joys is sharing the Word of God with our sisters and brothers in Christ. We are blest to meet to prepare God’s Word with our Neocatechumenal community, to sing psalms and inspired songs and to meet with our youth to make the Word of God alive and active in our lives.

What does a pair of shoes mean to me? Every year, during this time before the new school year begins, we ponder this question. Our kids who come to the Felician Mission don’t have shoes. Maybe they have a pair of flip flops that we gave them, but they don’t have a new pair of good shoes. They do’t even have a space to put their shoes. If they do have a pair of shoes, they have to hide it so someone else won’t steal it.

It is at this time of year, before they go to school, that they need a pair of black shoes and a pair of socks.

Here are the new shoes, and the kids received them yesterday. Because of you and your generosity, we were able to go to the market and buy different sizes for our boys and girls. We are also helping the economy here because we purchased the shoes in the market.

We are so grateful for your support and always being there to accompany our poor children. May God bless you! 🙏🏽

Each Christian man and woman, every member of the human family, can act as a thin yet unique and indispensable thread in weaving a network of life that embraces everyone.

May we feel challenged to assume, with prayer and commitment, our responsibility for the care of creation. May God, “the lover of life” (Wis 11:26), grant us the courage to do good without waiting for someone else to begin, or until it is too late.

From the Vatican, 1 September 2019

FRANCIS

© Copyright – Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Our prayers and appeals are directed first at raising the awareness of political and civil leaders. I think in particular of those governments that will meet in coming months to renew commitments decisive for directing the planet towards life, not death. The words that Moses proclaimed to the people as a kind of spiritual testament at the threshold of the Promised Land come to mind: “Therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live” (Dt 3:19). We can apply those prophetic words to ourselves and to the situation of our earth. Let us choose life! Let us say “no” to consumerist greed and to the illusion of omnipotence, for these are the ways of death. Let us inaugurate farsighted processes involving responsible sacrifices today for the sake of sure prospects for life tomorrow. Let us not give in to the perverse logic of quick profit, but look instead to our common future!

In this regard, the forthcoming United Nations Climate Action Summit is of particular importance. There, governments will have the responsibility of showing the political will to take drastic measures to achieve as quickly as possible zero net greenhouse gas emissions and to limit the average increase in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius with respect to pre-industrial levels, in accordance with the Paris Agreement goals. Next month, in October, the Amazon region, whose integrity is gravely threatened, will be the subject of a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. Let us take up these opportunities to respond to the cry of the poor and of our earth!